Mortimer's Christmas Manger

By Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

It's rather late for Christmas books, but it's always good to plan for next year. I also read a neat idea somewhere--to have Christmas in February (or March...). Choose a day in February, play Christmas music, drag out your nativity set, read Christmas stories (like this one!), have a simplified Christmas dinner, and give each member of the family a small gift. Top it all off by reading the accounts of Christ's birth in the scriptures. This will create a bright, warm spot in an otherwise cold and dreary month. It will allow you to appreciate the spirit of Christmas without all the crazy schedule business usually attached to December, and it will help to illustrate how the real gift of Christmas is wonderful every day and every time of year, not just at Christmastime.
This year I borrowed Mortimer's Christmas Manger from the library, and we loved it. It is a cute story about a mouse named Mortimer who is looking for a cozy home. He finds what looks like the perfect thing on a table near the family's Christmas tree. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of statues in the way. Each night he drags them out and each day the family puts them back until Mortimer overhears them reading the story of Christ's birth in Luke. Then, he looks at the statue whose bed he had been stealing each night and realized, "You aren't just any statue. You are a statue of Jesus." This story teaches in a simple but moving way that we can each find ways of making room for Christ in our lives. Mortimer gives up his new found home in order for baby Jesus to have a place to sleep--and then he spies the family's gingerbread house. What more could a mouse want?
Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman also make a great team in Bear Snores On and the other books in that series. I recommend those as well. Chapman's illustrations are whimsical but expressive and interesting. There are some great details--for instance, the illustrations of the family's home don't look like they came out of a Pottery Barn catalog, they look like real people live there. Couch cushions are crooked, throw pillows are squenched, toys are on the floor, an abandoned cup is on the table, and there are stray pine needles and Christmas ornaments hiding in various nooks and crannies. The mom in the family also has some fantastic furry slippers.